Why are perfume adverts so weird?

[M0reGinPlease]

I mean really weird?

Just saw the new Calvin Klein one with Jake Gyllenhaal... I'm lost for words really. Bizarre.

I haven't seen that one, but the Marc Jacobs one (Daisy) follows the script of dappled sunlight, women laughing and clutching one another and the name of the perfume being uttered in a wafty barely-there manner.

That one in particular with the child is awful. Makes him look like a weirdo.

Then there is the hard as nails Charleze Theron one where she has the grace of an elephant and stomps along with an air of constipation.

Julia Roberts is beautiful but her perfume as is so cringy.

They are basically vanity ads.

I've often thought that, they must be really expensive to make, always have European look and feel (if that makes sense), no humour, no story, I agree, totally weird and surely a waste of money

Yes, it's basically a small child stroking his beard?!

Conversely, I quite like the Charlize Theron one.

I’ve often wondered that. There seem to be more around Christmas time too and they just really irritate me.

I don't know the the answer More, but I have thought this for a long time. A lot of car ads are a bit weird too, but I digress.

Because they need to bamboozle you with bullshit to sell you a little £50 bottle of volatile organic compounds.

I can't even watch them. They are beyond cringey.

How DO you advertise smells?

I haaaaaate perfume ads. But then, I hate perfume...

This made me chuckle as dh HATES perfume ads. He groans every time they come on. He says “what on Earth does that tell me about how it smells?!”

I loves me a good nonsensical perfume ad. However the new D&G K advert gets me in too much of a flutter to be decent. Quite why his shirt has to remain so undone throughout remains a mystery but its lovely none the less

My 10 year old DS asked me why the trapeze woman from the Greatest Showman was waving a bottle in the air while riding a horse... I didn’t really have an answer for him

The new Gucci one for their gender neutral perfume with Harry Styles makes me want to break my own telly. They're trying to be do achingly cool with it, but in reality it's just the usual shite to try to get people to spend a fortune on something that smells like toilet cleaner.

Because perfume is a massive arener for brands. The cost is tiny compared to the retail ££££££. That’s why they spend so much on weird esoteric wanky adverts. They all smell ‘nice’ so the only way to differentiate your perfume is to pitch it at the correct target.

That tucking awful Johnny Depp Saucage one though 😮

What is Johnny Depp doing in that desert?

I quite like the one where Harry from One Direction has been abducted by a cult.

But it’s the Natalie Portman throwing a strop is so annoying.

"Pretension" by Fry and Laurie

I've bloody spelt pretention wrong haven't I? Was still a funny spoof though.

Do look up the Lee Mack send up of a perfume ad.

Oh my god we were just saying the same thing. It's the 1980s cult themed one I hate the most.

• 1970s

The Natalie Portman being all tantrummy, as a pp says, bit bonkers, lots of arguing in the relationship, great way to advertise a perfume.

I quite like the Zeyanda (?) one, riding the horse, although I cringed at the galloping on pavement. 😲

I despise the Gucci bloom one where they're pissing about in a pond full of flowers. Mostly because I cant the song (wild horses?).

*can't stand the song.